Please allow me the courtesy of replying to the comment by Dr. Gunther Ruckl concerning Kosovo in your Wednesday, April 14 edition.

Dr. Ruckl apparently supports the actions of the Clinton-Gore administration in Kosovo, but disparages the activities of the Reagan administration in the 1980s. Dr Ruckl thanks young Americans of another generation for saving his native Germany from Hitler.

Thanks are in order and deserved; however, not all of Germany was saved. About one-third of Germany was delivered over to Soviet Communism and simply transitioned from the tyranny and oppression of the Nazi Party to the tyranny and oppression of the Communist Party. Germans merely exchanged the feared midnight knock on the door from the Gestapo for the feared midnight knock on the door from the Stasi.

That is, until Ronald Reagan was elected and made the rollback of communism a goal of his administration. This gave hope to the people of Dr. Ruckl's native country, as well as all Eastern Europeans and anti-communist freedom fighters the world over. Then Ronald Reagan said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," and the East Germans did it for him.

Then, and only then, 50 years after the fall of Hitler, was all of Dr. Ruckl's native country free. Thanks to Ronald Reagan.

But more was to be done. Reagan's support of freedom fighters forced an election in Nicaragua and, lo and behold, the communists were tossed out. Then the Soviet Union fell and with it the financial support of insurgencies in El Salvador and elsewhere. Suddenly, what had been described as "popular revolutions" turned out to be simply Moscow-financed terrorism.

Dr. Ruckl also mentions Cambodia, where the Communists tried to liquidate an entire educated class with machetes and shovels; and Vietnam, where 6,000 were marched out of Hue to be slaughtered in the rice paddies because they supported the South Vietnamese government or worked for the Americans. This latter event occurred in early 1968.

Just a few months later a young draft-dodger and war protester named Bill Clinton was being wined, dined, womanized and further subverted by the Soviet Communist Party at the Mockva Hotel in Moscow. Now this draft dodger who rejected violence as a political tool is using violence as a political tool.

Only he isn't using it against Fidel Castro, who robbed the Cuban people of their freedom, and goes unpunished for recently shooting down two unarmed aircraft. He isn't using it against Kim Chong-Pil who builds super highways across North Korea that he alone may use, refuses to abandon nuclear weapons and sends missiles over Japan while simultaneously feeding the second largest army in Asia and starving children in his orphanages for photo ops.

And he isn't using violence against China. As a matter of fact he's allowing our secrets to be both bartered and stolen for illegal campaign contributions from the Communist Chinese. Maybe it was something he ate at the Mockva Hotel.

Should we use force to liberate the people of Kosovo? Yes.

Should we oppose tyranny and oppression regardless of what color flag it carries? Yes.

It is merely a question of priorities and we had better get ours straightened out quickly. We haven't much time left to figure out our vital national interests.

Next we are going to lose the Panama Canal and the Chinese will say whether we can transfer our ships between Atlantic and Pacific.

Meanwhile, let's give President Reagan his due, Dr. Ruckl. We used to live in a much safer world because of him. At least until Clinton-Gore came along. Now, Dr. Ruckl, you want to discuss Native Americans... watch this space.